All text books seem to agree that the first thing to get settled in marketing is to define your ideal client. Seems like that makes sense: if we are to spend our hard earned dollars on marketing to attract new leads, why wouldn’t we have a great idea of what an ideal lead looks like and therefore where they hangout, what they read, who they listen to?

The next common denominator in marketing is that we all believe that we get most new clients through word of mouth. Often, we business owners belong to networking groups that give us the opportunity to stand up and ask for referrals for our business. We go through the pain of turning up to these meetings week after week, of giving our one minute infomercial and sometimes, when we remember, we close with a request for others to find us a referral.

And that’s when “any”, “some” and “all” just ain’t enough.

How often have you heard other business owners say, “The ideal referral for my business is anyone who…?” and how many times have you just walked away from this request and not given it another thought? Plenty of times I guess. And that’s because a generic “any” or “someone” request does not get our brains and memories functioning and therefore we struggle to think of the “anys” or “somes” or “alls”.

Contrast that to a specific request, like “My ideal referral is the Marketing Manager of an insurance company like NZ Insurance, Sovereign Insurance or AiA Insurance.” The chances are that two or three out of thirty people will know an “any” in one of the companies that you have specifically mentioned and you will get their names and be on your way to making a great contact.

Know anyone who you would like to pass this onto? Bet you can’t think of anyone.

Consider the above request compared to the next request.

Please make sure you pass our newsletter on to the business owner next door. You’ll be doing them a favour. And you’ll more than likely impress them that you took the time to share this with them. Who knows, they might just be the perfect match to your ideal customer profile.

So get rid of your “any” requests and get specific. You will find you get better and more targeted referrals in less time and hey, that may even make those weekly networking meeting even more enjoyable.